Sunday, September 04, 2016

Transgenderism, Transexuality and the Problem of "Detransitioning"

It turns out that many "transgendered" people who undergo "transitions" later conclude that it was a mistake, and sometimes take steps to undo the process. This causes big problems for the theory of transgenderism the left is trying to force onto everyone else, and so there are frantic efforts to suppress this stuff / explain it away. But it just simply isn't going to go away. Even a little bit of knowledge about what the real phenomena are like makes it clear that a lot of these decisions will be regretted/repudiated.
One way this causes trouble for the theory is that many proponents of it insist that e.g. Caitlyn Jenner was always a woman, and that it is impossible for him to have been wrong about that. Should Jenner "detransition," then the theory is in danger of concluding that he was always a woman and always not been a woman.
Another problem for proponents of the theory is that they are pushing hard to make it easier and easier for younger and younger children to begin medical treatments to "transition." In fact, they are apparently pushing to make it more and more difficult for doctors to refuse to comply with such requests from children and/or their parents. This policy is based, to some extent, on a kind of infallibilism about such judgments by individuals. But the more evidence we have that they are (very) fallible, the more obviously insane it is to push such policies.
Ultimately, if this battle (for it is a battle) is to be won, I think it will be won on such medical / psychological terrain. Philosophical arguments seem to have little weight...and there is a vocal subset of philosophers dedicated to advancing politically-motivated sophistry about this issue...and everyone else seems cowed into silence. Philosophers are cowards, incidentally. That's one thing that's become very clear to me during my time in the discipline.